Future Urban Transport

Half the world’s population now lives in cities, and the urbanization of the world continues at breakneck pace. How people will move around these increasingly large and dense cities in a sustainable way is a tremendous challenge that remains to be solved. Future Urban Transport (FUT) is a research programme with centres of excellence around the world looking into this issue from many different angles: what type of transport is most effective; how should it be paid for; and who should pay?

The Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF) are financing seven of these centres, spread out across four regions: Africa, Asia, Australia and North America. Each centre receives approximately SEK 25 million (€2.6 million) in total financing over a five-year period. The cornerstone of the FUT programme are international conferences, held every third year, with the aim of bringing together researchers and practitioners within the urban transport field so they can share and communicate their knowledge at the various centres of excellence. The conferences also bring together transport users, politicians and city planners.